Part 1 of 3 Parts
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has announced that tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has finished construction of a pipeline that will transfer waste from Hanford’s buried waste tanks to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) for vitrification, also known as immobilization in glass.
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation was established during World War II to manufacture nuclear weapons. It is the most radioactively contaminated site in the U.S. and is the subject of a decade’s long multibillion dollar clean-up effort. Massive underground storage tanks that range in capacity from fifty-five thousand gallons to over one million gallons were constructed at Hanford to hold wastes from the production of plutonium. They are located in eighteen “tank farms” which each hold from two to sixteen tanks.
Brian Vance is the manager of the Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office. He said, “This is a significant step forward in our Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program to treat tank waste. The connection represents another example of this year’s progress and also demonstrates the strong commitment by the Department of Energy and our contractors to safely move our important site mission forward.”
The new thirty-five-hundred-foot pipe inside a pipe transfer line connects the WTP to a double-walled tank in the AX tank farm. This tank will serve as a holding tank for liquid waste that has been treated by the Tank-Side Cesium Removal system next to the AX tank farm to removed radioactive cesium and solids. Hanford workers installed the cesium removal system next to the AX Tank Farm earlier this year and are currently conducting readiness reviews before starting to treat tank waste early next year.
John Eschenberg is the WRPS president and CEO. He said, “For the first time, tank farms are connected to the Vit Plant, providing the avenue for transferring treated tank waste to the plant for vitrification. It’s exciting to be a part of putting the infrastructure in place to facilitate this critical mission.”
During the hot commissioning and operation at the WTP, the treated waste will be pumped in batches from the double-walled tank directly to the WTP for vitrification and disposal.
Valerie McCain is the WTP project director and senior vice president for Bechtel National Inc., the contractor designing, building, and commissioning the plant. She said, “It’s exciting to see the physical connection from the tank farms to the Vit Plant. This final tie-in symbolizes the collaborative spirit at Hanford and how we are all committed to treating waste.”
Initial work at the WTP had to be halted because of problems caused by vibration in the piping system due to different sizes of particles in the waste from the tanks.
Bechtel expects to heat up the first of two vitrification melters in the Low-Activity Waste Facility by the end of 2021 as part of the plant commissioning process. Hanford is preparing to start vitrifying tank waste by the end of 2023 if everything goes according to plan.
Please read Part 2 next